I had been hoping that the baby would come early and especially before Memorial Day so that Andrej could have one more day off of work to spend with his growing family. However, when my anxious mom suggested on Wednesday, May 23, that she and dad would go ahead and drive up the next day, Thursday the 24th, because she couldn’t wait any longer, I told her not to because my doctor won’t induce unless it is medically necessary until 42 weeks. This would mean that my parents could arrive and have to wait until June 13 to meet their grandson. Plus, at the time I felt great and was convinced the baby would follow after his big sis and go past his due date.

My mom, still not happy about the decision, agreed to wait until after my doctor’s appointment on Friday before booking a flight or packing up the car. I woke up Friday morning to light contractions, some pressure and cramps and couldn’t wait to get to my 8:45 am appointment to see if there had been any change in my progress. At the appointment, my doctor checked me and happily announced that I was dilated to a three-four and she was certain I would have the baby that day or at the most by Saturday. She encouraged me to go home and take Kaiya for a nice long walk so that we would be at the hospital by the afternoon and she could get out of the office. I told her I would certainly try.

I called my mom as soon as I got in the car and gave her the go ahead to come and by the time Kaiya and I returned home my light contractions had gotten much stronger. Instead of the walk I decided to clean, finish packing and finish last minute tasks that I wanted to complete before the baby arrived. Throughout the morning my contractions got stronger and more consistent and I felt like I was in a race with my body to finish all that I needed to before heading to the hospital.

By 11:30 am the contractions were really strong, but bearable, and I decided to have lunch early in hopes that Kaiya would be down for a nap before we needed to go to the hospital. I called Andrej to let him know that he would need to come home soon, but not to feel like he had to jump in the car at that moment. After Kaiya was tucked in bed, I started timing the contractions and they were anywhere from five to ten minutes apart so I called Andrej to come home pronto. I called my friend Heather to let her know what was happening and she offered to come and get Kaiya. Everything was falling into place and by 2:00 pm the car was loaded and Andrej and I were on our way to the hospital.

We checked in with labor and delivery and they rushed me into triage where I was strapped up to monitors and checked and told that I was dilated to a five and would be moved to a delivery room soon. The contractions were extremely strong and really close together and after each one I kept reminding the nurse that I wanted an epidural. Once settled in my room a nursing student went to work on getting an IV in my arm, and let’s just say that five days later I still have nasty bruises all over my arm from her repeated attempts. Finally the nurse took over and was successful.

Soon after the IV was in place, in walked the anesthesiologist bringing along what I couldn’t get fast enough. It didn’t take long before the epidural was working and I could relax, rest and wait patiently for the arrival of our little guy. I was checked again and dilated to an eight so they called my doctor. Dr. B arrived shortly and around 4:45 pm she broke my water, which revealed meconium in the amniotic fluid. Our doctor told us that meant they would need to suction the baby before my final push, and unfortunately Andrej probably wouldn’t be able to cut the cord.

Within half an hour I started to feel strong pressure, which I thought was odd because I didn’t feel this while in labor with Kaiya. I still couldn’t feel the contractions, but the pressure was quite painful. I told the nurse the next time she came in and she smiled and said the pressure was a good thing and that it wouldn’t be long. The pressure became more intense and I welcomed the moment when my doctor told me it was time to push. During the first push the baby’s heart rate dropped extremely low and they called for a NICU nurse to be there for the birth. The same thing happened to Kaiya during her birth, but her heart rate never came back up so they had to use forceps and get her out quickly. Thankfully, Tobi stabilized and he handled the next series of pushes without any problems. I pushed for about 15 – 20 minutes and at 5:42 pm our son was born.

Since they had already suctioned the meconium and he let out a huge wail, my doctor decided to go ahead and lay him on my chest which brought on a flood of tears from one happy mama (I didn’t get this moment with Kaiya because she was blue and didn’t make a sound so they whisked her away quickly) and she handed Andrej scissors and told him to cut the cord. I couldn’t have asked for a better labor and delivery. Our little guy weighed in at 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. He has blue eyes, but it was the hair that was most shocking. At first it appeared to be red and we really weren’t sure where he got that feature. Now it looks more strawberry blond and his eyebrows and body hair are cotton white. We still aren’t sure where he got that, but it sure is cute.

Andrej headed off to the nursery with Tobi to assist with his bath, and I had dinner and got cleaned up and ready to move to my postpartum room. When Andrej returned with the baby, he helped me get settled in the new room. We couldn’t agree on a name and decided we would need to sleep on it. Since it was still before Kaiya’s bedtime we decided that Andrej would go to Heather’s and collect Kaiya and take her home where he would also spend the night. My parents were due to arrive around 4am on Saturday morning, as they had to drive up because plane ticket prices were exorbitant due to the holiday weekend. Andrej found a content Kaiya who had had a fun afternoon and evening playing with her good buddy Ian. She really understood, and would tell you if you asked, that we were at the hospital and that her baby brother had arrived (Baby Tobi come out!). She was also very excited that her Papa and Babka would be here when she woke up the next morning.

The next two days were pretty uneventful. We spent loads of time snuggling with our sweet Tobi and enjoyed visits from our friends. Andrej and I spent many hours debating names, looking through baby naming websites and staring at our son saying, “He really doesn’t look like a _____ (insert one of many many name choices).”

We loved our visits with Kaiya and my parents. During Kaiya’s first visit she walked up to the bed and just stared at Tobi. When we told her that he was her baby brother, she exclaimed, “Dat (that) baby Tobi right der (there).” She was very cautious at first, but soon came around and was showering him with kisses.

We finally named Tobi (Tobias Daniel) around 8:00 am on Sunday morning, after what we like to refer to as the Name Nazi (the lady processing the birth certificate) kept hounding us for the paperwork. It was such a relief to finally be able to call him something other than baby boy or little buddy.

We were then discharged around 11:00 am on Sunday and returned home as a family of four. We are really enjoying our precious Tobi, even during the wee hours of the morning when his little blue eyes are wide open. He is nursing really well and giving us many opportunities to change his little diapers. He truly is a blessing and definitely made our Memorial Day weekend the most memorable one yet.

I’ll try to recap the timeline of yesterday.

* 7am – medium strength contractions
* 7:45 – Andrej off to work
* 9:00 – strong contractions
* 9:50 – Jessica’s phone call to Andrej
* 11:00 – Jessica and Andrej leaving the house off to the hospital
* 12:00 – We’re in a delivery room, dilated at 3, contractions every 3-5 minutes
* 2:30 – Epidural
* 3:30 – Baby’s heartbeat started to fluctuate so instead of the regular 140-150 it was 50-175 and repeatedly sounded the monitor’s alarm. Multiple resident doctors present at our room just staring at the monitors, whispering to each other, and turning the alarms off.
* 4:00 – Completely dilated, contractions almost continuous (our doctor still not present)
* 4:20 – All the staff (6-8 by now) started seriously considering C-section due to baby’s fluctuating heartrate.
* 4:40 – Our doctor showed up and brought an expert on forceps to see if there is any hope of the baby coming naturally – the decision was to give it a quick try otherwise… Jessica showed them some serious pushing which gave all of us hope.
* 4:50 – Baby was delivered by the help of forceps. Baby came out fine and the initial scary blue turned into more natural color. Since they had to deliver the baby very quickly, they weren’t able to be as gentle so Jessica is going to be recovering a little longer.
* 5:30 – Jessica was finally allowed to hold the baby (until then they were still working on Jessica – so I had the baby almost all to myself).
* 6-7 – First shot on nursing went quite well.
* 7:30 – They moved us to the postpartum section of the floor where we should stay until Thursday if all goes well.
* 12-12:45 – Second nursing went quite well.
* 12:50am – Jessica’s parents finally made it to the hospital (one of their flights got canceled due to some T-storms.)
* 2:00 – The went baby to the nursery so we could get some sleep (which ended by 5:00am due baby’s hunger)

I hope this brings to light into my scattered audio posts from yesterday. Thank you for your prayers once again!

Andrej

Hey all,

I just have a second here (I’m at home picking up some stuff we forgot this morning). Thank you all for your prayers (and for your comments). They were and are needed.

Oh, yeah… How the heck do we spell the name? :) Kaiya. Pictures coming soon.

Andrej

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